Business

2024 | Google Has An Illegal Monopoly On Search, Judge Rules. Here’s What’s Next

Published

2 months ago

2024-08-06

Google's Latest Spam Update Met with Widespread Criticism Amidst a Year of Turbulent Changes

Google has violated US antitrust law with its search business, a federal judge ruled Monday, handing the tech giant a staggering court defeat with the potential to reshape how millions of Americans get information online and to upend decades of dominance.

“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in Monday’s opinion. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”

The decision by the US District Court for the District of Columbia is a stunning rebuke of Google’s oldest and most important business. The company has spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive contracts to secure a dominant position as the world’s default search provider on smartphones and web browsers.

Google | Search Engine Image

Google Has An Illegal Monopoly On Search, Judge Rules. Here’s What’s Next

Those contracts have given it the scale to block out would-be rivals such as Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo, the US government alleged in a historic antitrust lawsuit filed during the Trump administration.

Now, said Mehta, that powerful position has led to anticompetitive behavior that must be stopped.

Specifically, Google’s exclusive deals with Apple and other key players in the mobile ecosystem were anticompetitive, Mehta said. Google has also charged high prices in search advertising that reflect its monopoly power in search, he added.

Those contracts have long meant that when users want to find information, Google is generally the easiest and quickest platform to go to, which in turn has fueled Google’s massive online advertising business.

While the court did not find that Google has a monopoly in search ads, the broader strokes of the opinion represent the first major decision in a string of US-government led competition lawsuits targeting Big Tech. This case in particular has been described as the biggest tech antitrust case since the US government’s antitrust showdown with Microsoft at the turn of the millennium.

“This victory against Google is an historic win for the American people,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “No company — no matter how large or influential — is above the law.”

The White House called the ruling “a victory for the American people.”

“As President Biden and Vice President Harris have long said, Americans deserve an internet that is free, fair, and open for competition,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Monday night.

Google said in a statement that it plans to appeal the decision, and that Mehta’s opinion recognized Google as the internet’s best search engine — an argument the company had made in court as the reason consumers preferred Google over the competition.

“As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use,” said Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

This case is distinct from a separate antitrust suit brought by the Biden administration against Google in 2023 related to the company’s advertising technology business. That case is expected to head to trial in early September.

But Monday’s decision marks the second high-profile antitrust defeat for Google after a federal jury in California said in December that Google runs an illegal monopoly with its proprietary app store. The court in that case is still deliberating possible remedies.

Possible penalties
Mehta’s decision is expected to trigger a separate proceeding to determine what penalties Google will face. Together with Google’s coming appeal, the entire process may take months or even years for any potential consequences to play out. But the ruling could ultimately upend how Google makes its search engine available to users, by impacting its ability to make the pricey deals with device makers and online service providers that were at the heart of the case.

Other remedies could be on the table, too. For example, the court could force Google to implement a “choice screen” letting users know about other available search engines, Vanderbilt University law professor Rebecca Allensworth told CNN.

The company is also likely to face a monetary fine, although fines are “not the primary way in which the American antitrust system enforces the law,” because they tend to be a “drop in the bucket for a huge, very profitable company like Google,” she said.

At the time the lawsuit was first filed, US antitrust officials also did not rule out the possibility of a Google breakup, warning that Google’s behavior could threaten future innovation or the rise of a Google successor.

‘Definitely a landmark’
Monday’s decision against Google will likely be remembered in the same breath as other major antitrust cases throughout history, some antitrust experts said. That list includes the breakup of AT&T’s telephone monopoly and Standard Oil, as well as Microsoft’s illegal bundling of its Internet Explorer web browser with Windows, said Diana Moss, vice president and director of competition policy at the Progressive Policy Institute.

Google | AP news Image

Google Has An Illegal Monopoly On Search, Judge Rules. Here’s What’s Next

In each of those cases, Moss said, the courts highlighted a specific business practice or mechanism — such as Microsoft’s browser bundling — as a violation of US competition law.

The Google decision this week is no different, zeroing in on the search giant’s exclusive contracts and finding huge problems with the use of such by large, monopolistic firms.

“This is definitely a landmark,” said Moss, adding that “it’s very clear in signaling that the use of exclusive contracts in the hands of a monopolist violates the law.”

However, Adam Kovacevich, founder of the tech advocacy group Chamber of Progress and a former Google policy director, pushed back on the ruling, saying, “the biggest winner from today’s ruling isn’t consumers or little tech, it’s Microsoft.”

“Microsoft has underinvested in search for decades, but today’s ruling opens the door to a court mandate of default deals for Bing. That’s a slap in the face to consumers who chose Google because they think it’s the best,” Kovacevich said. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified as part of the Google antitrust trial.

The decision won’t just affect users of Google’s search engine. It will also have ripple effects across the economy as businesses digest the message Mehta is sending about business contracts, Moss said.

The ruling could also be a bellwether for other major tech antitrust cases, including against Apple and Amazon. Both Amazon and Apple have called the antitrust lawsuits filed against them “wrong on the facts and the law.” It could also boost to the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, the parent of Ticketmaster, Moss said, given how central exclusivity deals are to that lawsuit.

“There are a lot of parts of the government’s arguments in its case against Google that are puzzle pieces to their other cases,” Allensworth said.

Artificial intelligence at stake
Mehta’s 277-page opinion follows a lengthy, multiweek trial last year that saw high-ranking executives from Google, as well as rivals and partners including Apple, Microsoft and others, testify in person. Much of the complex proceeding took place behind closed doors, reflecting the sensitive business information involved in the deals that powered Google’s search dominance.

At trial, some critics warned that Google’s search monopoly, which is fed by a never-ending supply of user search queries, would allow it to leapfrog to a dominant position in artificial intelligence.

The enormous amount of search data that is provided to Google through its default agreements can help Google train its artificial intelligence models to be better than anyone else’s — threatening to give Google an unassailable advantage in AI that would further entrench its power, Microsoft CEO Nadella said from the witness stand.

Nadella’s testimony highlighted how the government’s case may have far-reaching effects that go beyond traditional search and may shape the future of a technology world leaders have described as potentially transformational.

If the court takes away Google’s agreements that make it the default search engine on so many devices, it could hurt the company’s core product at an extremely pivotal moment, Emarketer senior analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf said in an emailed statement.

“Its ubiquity is its biggest strength, especially as competition heats up among AI-powered search alternatives,” Mitchell-Wolf said, referring to the growing threat to Google’s search dominance posed by artificial intelligence search tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

SOURCE | AP

Business

Nike’s New CEO Might Attempt to Heal Retailer Relationships in the Sales Comeback Drive.

Published

4 hours ago

2024-09-20

Salman Ahmad

(VOR News) – John Donahoe, currently leaving his post as Nike’s chief executive officer, oversaw this approach. Its main goals were online and direct product sales straight to consumers via the company’s retail locations.

Conversely, it is expected that the new chief executive officer of Nike would turn around this strategy and boost the company’s initiatives to rebuild relationships with stores to raise customer expenditure. This kind of occurrence is something one would expect.

Based on a statement released by the large company on Thursday, seasoned sportswear business specialist Elliott Hill has been named chief executive officer.

Investors have faith in the company’s ability to turn things around as a result of this decision even if it has been suffering from strategic errors and fierce competition.

The corporation, which had lost a quarter of their worth thus far this year, saw an uptick of 8% during the Friday early trading session. This marked a notable development.

Up till now, a fifth of their Nike value has been lost starting this year.

David Swartz, a Morningstar financial analyst, says, “Nike’s board, including the controlling Knight family, sought a leader with comprehensive knowledge of the company to tackle its recent challenges, the most urgent of which is Donahoe’s focus on prioritising direct sales over product development and retail partnerships.”

In 2020, Donahoe—who had worked for eBay as an executive—was named Nike’s CEO. His main goals as a leader were to grow the direct-to-consumer (DTC) market and increase the company’s e-commerce operations.

Nike wanted to increase the amount of goods it sold at full price through its own physical stores, mobile application, and websites while decreasing its dependency on other retailers like Foot Locker and Macy’s. In one way, increasing the range of products offered at additional locations helped to accomplish this goal.

The misguided tactical change gave out Nike’s shelf space and market share to up-and-coming businesses. Roger Federer’s sponsored company On Holding and Deckers’ owned Hoka are recent examples of enterprises. Deckers is the true owner of Hoka.

Nike management acknowledged earlier this year that the company was losing market share in the running segment and that the direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategy was not producing the expected growth. This marked a major turning point for Nike.

In the running industry, Nike’s market share has decreased.

“Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, said that Donahoe was the perfect fit for the position, having been brought in to transform the business model.” “Donahoe was the appropriate individual for the task.”

“Donahoe was the appropriate individual for the task.” “Donahoe was the ideal candidate for the position.”

But after the epidemic, things changed, and people started to want face-to-face interactions with the brands they saw on store shelves. Regretfully, the return was made more difficult by the sudden adjustments implemented in 2020.”

Nike hopes that by highlighting high-performance products like the Pegasus running shoe and the Alphafly 3 racer, the Olympics would help the company regain market dominance. This is because the company wants to showcase its wares at the Olympics.

The business plans to introduce new trainers that would run less than $100. This is done in an attempt to attract customers who are worried about the price of their goods.

Those who attend the investor day that is slated for November will have a better idea of Hill’s goals.

“While we do not expect Nike to completely abandon its direct-to-consumer initiative, we view Elliott Hill’s appointment as CEO as a clear indication that Nike is re-focusing on product innovation,” said Oppenheimer research analyst Brian Nagel. That is unquestionably proof that Nike is currently shifting its approach.

SOURCE: YN

Business

Early Bitcoin Miner Wallets Come Alive, Moving $15 Million After Fifteen Years.

Published

5 hours ago

2024-09-20

Salman Ahmad

(VOR News) – Bitcoin miner wallets that were dormant for almost 15 years have been active again trading 250 BTC, which is equal to over $15 million in the present market. This is a significant development.

On September 20, Lookonchain made the announcement that five miner wallets, which had been awarded fifty Bitcoin as block rewards in 2009, were now transferring funds for the first time in more than 10 years.

This was happening for the first time since the year 2009. It was the very first time that money had been moved from one place to another.

The information that is kept on the blockchain indicates that the mining payouts were received by the wallets around the beginning of the year 2009.

Bitcoin enthusiasts call this the Satoshi age.

Previously, I mentioned this time period. Miners have been successful in maintaining exceptional growth of more than one million percent in the value of the major digital currency, which is currently trading at more than sixty-three thousand dollars.

This growth has been maintained without interruptions. When one takes into consideration the fact that Bitcoin was only worth a few pennies whenever it was originally introduced, this is very astonishing.

Please tell me who the owner of these wallets is.

There is often a boom in interest in cryptocurrency whenever money is removed from an old wallet, particularly one that dates back to the Satoshi era.

This is especially true when the wallet comes from the Satoshi era. This period of time, which began in late 2009 and continues into 2011, is commonly referred to as the “Satoshi era.” In this period of time, Satoshi Nakamoto, the person who initially created Bitcoin, continued to be active and spoke through various online forums.

In January 2009, Nakamoto was the one who mined the very first block of cryptocurrency.

It is therefore extremely possible that these wallets belonged to a person who was active in the early stages of Bitcoin, given that they received their prizes not too much longer after the cryptocurrency was revealed to the general public for the first time.

Among the members of the community, there were those who pondered the possibility that these initial wallets might have some kind of relationship to Nakamoto. After more than ten years of silence, the fact that all five wallets sent money on the same day suggests that they may be held by one or more connected individuals.

This is because of the fact that all five wallets transferred money on the same day. This is due to the fact that all five wallets were updated with new money on the same day.

About how many wallets are inactive?

Fortune did a study that revealed that there are over 1.75 million Bitcoin wallets that have been idle for more than ten years. The findings of this analysis were published in Fortune.

Numerous of these wallets include significant quantities of Bitcoin that were acquired at prices in the double digits and are currently valued in the millions of dollars.

These wallets contain a significant amount of Bitcoin.

It is believed that these dormant wallets contain around 1,798,681 Bitcoin, which has a value on the market that is greater than 120 billion dollars at the present time.

There have been a number of wallets that were utilised during the Satoshi era that have recently been brought back to life, which enables them to send Bitcoin to fresh addresses.

Some of the owners even transferred the money to cryptocurrency exchanges after they had held onto the cryptocurrency for more than ten years, which shows that they may have been trying to make a profit from their investment.

SOURCE: CS

Business

JetBlue Will Imitate Bigger And More Successful Rivals By Opening Airport Lounges At JFK, Boston

Published

6 hours ago

2024-09-20

Kiara Grace

Jetblue | AP Image

JetBlue Airways will open its first airport lounges in New York and Boston next year, aiming to compete with larger carriers for premium travelers.

The airline announced Thursday that it will open an 8,000-square-foot club at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport late next year, followed by an 11,000-square-foot lounge at Boston Logan International Airport shortly thereafter.

AP Image

JetBlue Will Imitate Bigger And More Successful Rivals By Opening Airport Lounges At JFK, Boston

The company stated that the lounges will primarily serve top-tier members of its TrueBlue frequent-flyer club and those who obtain a new, premium JetBlue-branded credit card that is not currently accessible. If room is available, the airline will sell day passes as well.

According to Jayne O’Brien, the New York-based airline’s head of marketing and customer assistance, the lounges are part of a larger effort to improve service for premium leisure travellers on the East Coast.

“The lounges are something we have been looking at for a while, and now is the right time to put in these extra benefits for our most valuable customers,” O’Brien said during a recent interview.

JetBlue declined to specify how much it will cost to create and run the lounges, which are commonplace at major airports like American, Delta, and United.